One day, Weiwei took a finished file to Mr. Bai for review.
She had already learned that everything Mr. Bai did, he did with a sour expression on his face at best, if not with complete disgust. He didn't seem to trust that any of his employees could do decent work, and in addition he was always in a bad mood.
So Weiwei wasn't surprised when Mr. Bai only grunted in response to her hello and passed him the file folder.
"Done, is it?" he grumbled.
What did surprise Weiwei was that she thought she saw Mr. Bai glance a couple of times at her legs. Weiwei tried to dress down as much as possible for work, but she didn't have a lot of clothes to choose from, so she alternated between a skirt and jeans.
Shoot. Is the skirt not long enough?
Mr. Bai glanced at Weiwei's face, and then back at the documents.
"Well, yes, this part needs to be moved up. The rest is fine." He tossed the papers on the desk. "Make sure it's revised and stop by at the end of the day to go over it one more time."
At first, Weiwei didn't think much of doing file reviews at the end of the day. But when Mr. Bai kept her in his office after work another two times talking about this and that, Weiwei consulted Jingjing.
"Yes, I know," snorted Jingjing. "He must've noticed you."
"What do you mean, noticed?"
Jingjing looked at Weiwei and shook her head. "Are you really as clueless, as you're trying to look?"
Weiwei turned bright red. "What do you mean?"
"See, you're not entirely clueless," chuckled Jingjing. "'Noticed' as in when a man notices a woman."
Weiwei stared back, horrified. "You mean-?"
Jingjing clicked her tongue impatiently. "Yes, yes, girl. He probably likes you."
He likes me! OMG!
Weiwei wanted to scream and run away.
Why am I so unlucky? Those people who called me useless were probably right if attracting Mr. Bai was the best I could achieve.
Jingjing softened, watching Weiwei's reaction.
"Ah, don't worry about it that much. You're not the only one."
"There were more?"
"Of course, there were more. As you'd guess, nobody wants anything to do with him, so he keeps trying where he can. He went after me soon after I started, too."
"He did?" Weiwei's eye rounded. "What did you do? What happened?"
Jingjing coolly shrugged. "Not much. I told him I was married."
Weiwei deflated. Yes, that's a good one. Too bad I'm not married.
"And that was it? Did he leave you alone after that?" she asked.
"Yes, pretty soon. He was pissed for a while, but he did leave me alone." Jingjing leaned over to make sure she wouldn't be overheard. "For all his mean appearance, inside he's a spineless jerk."
Jingjing sat back up and glanced at Weiwei. "You'll find a way out, if you want to, I'm sure."
For the next couple of days, Weiwei was preoccupied with what she should say to Mr. Bai.
"I can't say that I'm married," she thought. "First of all, one could check it. Second, I don't look like a married woman. Jingjing definitely looks like a married woman, I can see that. She's so – what's the word – feminine. And she's older. And she knows how to use makeup well. Anyone can tell that I'm not married."
So, when Mr. Bai told Weiwei that he was going to order food delivery while they were reviewing her files, Weiwei found herself unprepared.
Also, she wasn't entirely sure whether she was overthinking it. After all, Mr. Bai wasn't telling her he liked her. He was just ordering food.
Maybe Jingjing was wrong? Maybe I'm making too much out of nothing?
Yes, him staring every once in a while at her legs and face made her feel weird. But again, he hadn't done or said anything about liking her, or touched her.
"Thanks, I'm really not hungry," Weiwei muttered. "Could we just finish the review, because… because… because I need to run."
Mr. Bai gave her a look. "Run where?"
"I-" Shoot! Where do I need to run?
"I have plans," Weiwei managed to say.
"Oh, yes?" Mr. Bai squinted and then dropped another file in front of her. "Finish this tomorrow morning. We will review both tomorrow at the end of the day."